North Korea's nukes aren't going anywhere, and the US needs to get over it

By Bonnie Kristian

Observers should not mistake the absence of direct engagement between Washington and Pyongyang for disinterest in the fate of US-North Korea relations, State Department representative Ned Price said in a recent press briefing.

Price stressed that the administration's "strategic goals" with the Kim Jong Un regime will be "focus[ed] on reducing the threat to the United States and to our allies as well as to improving the lives of the North and South Korean people. And, again, the central premise is that we remain committed to denuclearization of North Korea."

The Biden team's workmanlike approach is an expedient change from their predecessors' photo-op diplomacy. But this continued insistence on denuclearization as the primary goal in US-North Korea engagement is incredibly counterproductive.

This piece was originally published in Business Insider on February 20, 2021. Read more HERE.